Every year from July through November, a few lucky Northeast anglers encounter tropical fish species that have wandered beyond their typical range. Tarpon and barracuda come to mind, but one species that appears semi-regularly from New Jersey to Cape Cod is the cubera snapper, the largest snapper species in the world.
In 2026, there have been at least two confirmed cubera snapper catches in the Northeast. The most recent was landed by Dzengis Iljazi and Todd Vitello, who were fishing for blackfish (tautog) beneath New York’s Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge when the surprise catch unfolded.
Although it is certainly not the largest cubera snapper ever caught in the Northeast—or even the largest one this season—its size does little to diminish how unlikely it is to hook and successfully land such a fish in these waters.
According to the Florida Museum of Natural History, cubera snappers are solitary, reef-dwelling fish with a range that extends from Brazil to Massachusetts. Adult cuberas are known to be voracious predators that use their large, pronounced canine teeth to clamp down on and crush lobsters, crabs, and bony fishes. With such a diet, cubera snappers can reach impressive sizes, growing up to 5 feet in length and weighing as much as 125 pounds.
While mature cuberas—which can reach 55 years old—reside on nearshore rock ledges and reefs in 50 to 200 feet of water, juveniles are often caught in estuaries and around mangroves and inshore seagrass beds. The cubera Vitello and Iljazi hooked was a larger juvenile that had positioned itself to feed on the abundant fish and crabs that live among shallow rock piles around the Verrazzano’s massive concrete pilings.
In an interview with Vitello, he revealed that the tide had just slacked out, so Iljazi pitched an ice fishing jig tipped with a shrimp tail into some shallow rock structure. “He was fishing with 8-pound-test mainline to keep contact with such a light jig,” said Vitello.
It wasn’t long before Iljazi’s bait was picked up, and a surprisingly long fight ensued. “This was clearly not a blackfish,” Vitello recalled.
The two tog fishermen suspected that they had hooked a big striped bass, or even foul-hooked a black drum. Eventually, their mystery fish surfaced broadside and they shared a brief moment of confusion.
“It was getting dark, but once we got it in the boat and saw the teeth, we knew for sure it wasn’t a drum,” Vitello said. He and Iljazi snapped some photos, did a quick Google search, and called Mark Fuduli at Tackle World in Paramus, NJ, who identified the fish as a cubera snapper.
Upon returning to shore, the duo brought their catch to a nearby ShopRite location to get a weight. “There was no other place that had a scale and was still open at that hour,” Vitello noted. “The fish weighed 22.99-pounds and measured 35 inches long.”
To catch a sizable cubera snapper on such light tackle is an impressive feat. To do so within sight of the unmistakable New York City skyline makes it that much more remarkable.
In southern locales, juvenile cuberas are popular table fare thanks to their mild, flaky white meat. However, consuming adult cubera snappers that weigh more than 30 pounds carries a risk of ciguatera poisoning. This is one potential reason Florida and federal waters have a 12-inch minimum size limit for keeping cubera snapper.
When asked how the fish tasted, Vitello responded, “Fabulous.”
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